Student privacy: before you begin
School approval comes first
- Ask your school or district whether ClassLoop is approved for your intended use. Until approval is established, practice with invented students and invented records.
- Follow the school's process for consent or a permitted FERPA exception, vendor review, data access, retention, and deletion. A teacher invitation is not that approval.
- Keep official attendance and grades in the school's SIS/LMS. ClassLoop is a classroom working copy.
The U.S. Department of Education advises teachers to check approval before using an online tool. When a school relies on the school-official exception, the provider must meet conditions including school control of the information, authorized educational use, and limits on redisclosure. The school must determine whether those conditions are met. DOE: online-tool guidance.
Choose the least identifying useful roster
- For approved real use, prefer a unique class-local label, such as Student01, Student02, and Student03. Use one student per line (Sheet 03).
- Keep any label-to-identity map separately in an approved school record. Do not use a district student ID as the label.
- If the school permits first names plus initials or nicknames, use only what the activity needs. Give students with similar names distinct labels; the importer removes exact duplicate display names.
- Do not put full names, student emails, birthdates, photos, district IDs, diagnoses, or IEP details in roster labels. Keep prompts, lesson text, pass names, and shared media free of private student details.
Short names are data minimization, not a FERPA guarantee. Initials, nicknames, class numbers, or other details can still identify a student when linked to other information. DOE's de-identification standard considers information alone and in combination with what a reasonable person in the school community could know. DOE: de-identified records.
Protect what the class can see
Project the dedicated display, not your teacher control screen. Names, groups, passes, prompts, and lessons can be visible to the room. Keep notes and exported records protected; enter learning-profile information only if specifically authorized by your school. Share pilot feedback with invented examples, not roster screenshots.